Game 22 Recap: It’s All Bad

The Yankees wrapped up their worst opening month in 25 years Saturday night after they dropped their fourth straight game, an 8-0 rout at the hands of the rival Red Sox. The team enters May six games under .500 at 8-14, the first time they’ve begun that poorly since 1991, and the first time the team has been six games under at any point in a season since June 5, 2007.

Unlike Friday’s rip-your-heart-out affair in Fenway, it never really felt like the Yankees had a chance against Rick Porcello Saturday night. The offense mustered just five hits, all singles, and put just two runners in scoring position all night. Porcello cruised to his fifth win in as many chances, spinning seven shutout innings and striking out six. The top five in the Yankee lineup went a combined 1 for 17, and Brian McCann was the only Yankee batter to reach base more than once.

Michael Pineda continued his roller coaster season by laboring through five innings, racking up 50 pitches through two innings and over 90 through four. He was able to navigate through trouble for the most part, scattering five hits and three walks and making it through the fifth. If not for a two-out double that Mookie Betts blooped into no-man’s land in right field to score a pair, Pineda would have escaped unscathed. Two runs is all the Sox would need, but they kept swinging anyway. Jackie Bradley Jr. continued to be a thorn in New York’s side by tripling in an insurance run in the sixth off of Chasen Shreve, and Betts all but put the game out of reach with an infield single to drive Bradley in. They added insult to injury in the seventh by knocking Johnny Barbato around for four more runs, highlighted by David Ortiz’s second home run in as many days and Bradley’s second triple in as many innings.

The Play: Mookie Betts’ 2-run double in the second (+.172 WPA)

There was no shortage of hard-hit balls on the Red Sox side, but this opposite-field flare off the bat of Betts is what ultimately swung the needle in Boston’s favor for good. Betts would go on to pick up another RBI with an infield single in the sixth.

Top Performers

Yankees: Brian McCann (2 for 3)

Red Sox: Jackie Bradley Jr. (3 for 3, 1 BB, 1 2B, 2 3B, 2 R, 3 RBI)

Notes

-As mentioned earlier, the last time the Yankees were six games under .500 at any point was in June of 2007, a year before Joe Girardi took the managerial reigns. This is as low as the Girardi-led Yankees have sunk.

-The 1991 Yankees, who also began the season six games under, ultimately finished 71-91. The Yankees haven’t finished a season under .500 since 1992.

-While Saturday marked just the second time this season that the Yankees have been shut out, it’s the seventh game in a row and 12th overall that they’ve been held under three runs. They now have the fewest runs scored in the American League.

The Quote

“Enough’s enough.” -Manager Joe Girardi on the team sinking to six games under .500

The Highlight: You’re kidding, right?

If it wasn’t made clear enough in the opening, just about everything in this game was abysmal from a Yankee perspective. The highlight is that very soon this guy will be out of our lives:

Up Next

The Yankees and Nathan Eovaldi will attempt to stop the bleeding in front of the nation on Sunday Night Baseball. Standing in their way will be David Price, who will make his first start against New York since signing his free agent mega-deal with Boston this past winter. Price has been rocky overall in 2016, but struck out 14 in eight innings in his last start against Atlanta. If he brings anything close to that kind of stuff, the Yankee offense will be in for another long night. Game time is 8:05 pm and will be televised on ESPN.